Drag Race Build Project Blue 98 Eclipse

[DreamChaser7]

I have the Magnus IM in my parts bin for my build as well but no TB yet. Was thinking about this one. Sorry if this question is a little daft, I haven’t built one yet though. What controls idle/cold idle start up with this setup? What can attached to this TB IPS, TPS, FIAV, etc. and what is controlled/simulated with ECU. I plan to have ECMLink. Also mine is a 1g, not sure if that matters.
Love your car btw

 

[diambo4life]

This is totally mechanical. The only electrical part on this is the TPS. It has a screw to set the idle. That's it. I also have a standalone.....so I am not sure how it would work with ECMLink. I never ran ECMLink with an aftermarket throttle body so I can't answer your question. Also keep in mind this throttle body is a Mustang 90mm square flange.

 

[diambo4life]

I did some troubleshooting regarding a few issues I have been having with the car.
Issue #1: Mysterious fuel pressure drop.
Ever since I got the car running, the car has been holding fuel pressure steady at idle but as soon as I opened the throttle, the fuel pressure would drop to almost 0psi. I suspected maybe my one way check valve was failing but when I took it apart, there was nothing wrong with it. I reconfigured how I had routed my fuel lines at the fuel cell and even lowered it (plus the e-pump) below the fuel cell base a bit. I decided to eliminate the side feed primer fuel pump and just use it as an aux inline feeder pump to the mechanical. The fuel delivery seemed slightly better but it still lost pressure as the RPM was increased to the point of stalling. I suspected maybe it was the electric fuel pump failing, since it would make some weird noises intermittently. I decided to test a theory I had and just bypassed the mechanical FP and let the electrical pump do all the work and BAM! No fuel delivery issues. I am suspecting that the mechanical pump flow is just too high and it is starving of fuel and cavitating? Anyway, I have the mechanical pump bypassed and will reevaluate whether I should use a much bigger electric pump feeder to run with it or just nix the mechanical FP idea temporarily.

 

[diambo4life]

Issue #2: Automatic Transmission
The transmission that came with the car is a built unit from DTR but had been sitting for years since the build. The transmission was mated to the engine of the car during this time as far as I can recall but it is "zero mile" as I was told. Now, I am using Haltech 1500 stepper motor outputs to control solenoids A and B for the transmission. There is no other wiring attached to the transmission. The issue is when the car is shifted to Reverse or Drive, the wheels are powered and spin appropriately but only for about maybe 20-30seconds then there is no power transmitted. After talking to Aaron, whose base trans tune I am using in the car, he was more than willing to help me troubleshoot. He asked me to check pressure from the RC port and I found that in Drive, the pressure was anywhere from 75-90psi. During this time, the wheels were powered but the pressure gradually dropped to 0psi and the wheels would stop spinning immediately after. This was with enough ATF in the trans. The VB will be dropped and sent to him to check it out.

Issue #3: DSS Rear Axle
During troubleshooting of Issue #2 above, I discovered that the rear passenger wheel was not spinning. Looking closely and spinning the wheel from underneath, I could tell that the actual axle shaft was not spinning while the wheel was spinning. So, this will be removed and I am hoping it's rebuildable.

So this is the current status update of the blue car. It's always 2 steps ahead and 5 back, but we will figure it all out eventually. I am taking a pause with the project so I can start working on my very neglected Mustang project.

 

[diambo4life]

Dropped the auto trans pan and I didn't like the condition of the pan contents. I mean, I don't know what it should look like, seemed like a lot of material in there. Some of the valve cover bolts were barely tight and one was finger tight. I can't imagine that being good. The filter was dirty. Shipped off the VB to be checked out and I will order a new trans filter/gasket kit and fresh ATF.

 

[1cleangsx]

Dude, I hate to be the first to say it but, is it possible the person you bought that trans from wasn’t completely honest?

Do you have a receipt from DTR?

 

[CrackedDSM]

Honestly, you’re not the only one I’ve heard having issues with a fresh DTR trans.

 

[diambo4life]

Dude, I hate to be the first to say it but, is it possible the person you bought that trans from wasn’t completely honest?

Do you have a receipt from DTR?

Man, I questioned whether I should even post this because I don't want it to seem like I am making any accusations at all, but I really like my builds to be honest and give the true ups and downs of the process. So, I was just reporting my experiences and findings. Previous owner is a very very good friend of mine I have known for over 20 years and I have absolutely no reason to doubt him. The trans was clean externally. I was just surprised to see the contents of the pan. I am not sure where all that material came from. The filter was literally dirty. Granted the trans had been sitting for awhile, it's possible for trash to have made it's way in there. I don't know. DTR is our local guy here and has done awesome work for many of us here, please, this is not me making any negative comments about DTR and I don't want the convo veering in that direction please. At this time, Aaron offered to go through the VB and I accepted because he was helpful diagnosing a couple things for me.

Maybe junk from the TC? It has a Precision unit I believe.

 

[1cleangsx]

For sure man I wasn’t in any way doubting Darren Thomas, just didn’t know the back story on the trans, you’ve got a beautiful car and I hope you get her sorted out

 

[diambo4life]

It's been a month since the last update. I did send out my valve body out for service and it came back last week. I installed it last weekend but haven't added fluids or tested anything quite yet due to time. I hope my issue is fixed though! I will find out this weekend.

 

[diambo4life]

I drove the car around the block a couple times and looks like the transmission issue described in this post is resolved. I can't drive the car too far from the house because the car is very illegal at the moment with no lights, registration, real tags, insurance etc. But I am happy with this current status. Thanks Aaron Gregory!

I just ordered proper lugnuts for the car and hope to drive it a little more after I get this stuff taken care of. I really hate the muffler (fart can) and exhaust (sits too low and scrapes the ground) so it will be modified at some point for my sanity.

 

[Darren Thomas Racing]

Honestly, you’re not the only one I’ve heard having issues with a fresh DTR trans.

Im honestly quite sad that I haven’t heard of anyone having issues with a fresh build of mine. All of my transmissions are throughly tested before I send them out. I’m talking hours worth of testing that sometimes makes me want to quit offering them because I’m so meticulous. I will never let anything leave my shop without being pristine. Now I have had clients who had issues after install and didn’t follow instructions on TC pull out, other miscellaneous install procedures, or stalling for an godly amount of time- and I still took care of repairs for them. If there are any of my past clients who have had issues and not reached out to me personally, i absolutely encourage you to because im unaware there was anyone.

 

[diambo4life]

Almost a month without an update. I haven't messed too much with the car. I really need to tag it so I can legally drive it down the road. I did install a digital dash over this weekend and I like it. I figured since I was not using it in my other car, I may as well use it in this car that needed a dash. The IQ3 dash was useless to me since I didn't have the special cable it needed to transmit data from the ECU.

 

[diambo4life]

Wow...over 2.5 months with no updates. Sorry guys. Really nothing much to report but I am wiring the lights in the car because it had all the stock wiring removed. I hate wiring so it's a slow process...and I am messy with it so trying to clean it up. This will be wired to toggle switches. Easy for me to do than trying to redo the stock setup. I also haven't tagged the car so I don't really drive it more than a half a mile from the house but I promise to have some updates in the next few months as I get these tasks completed and actually get it on the road for some tuning.

 

[Imback]

Is this DSM PWR old 2g from back in the day?

 

[diambo4life]

The bare shell, yes.

 

[bastarddsm]

Dude the AEM Dashes are the best IMO. My only complaint is I wish they had a few dedicated inputs for turns/highbeam/fuel gauge. I know they have turns or something maybe but it's kinda f***y to make them work.

If I ever get over wanting to keep a stockish interior in my race car I'll have an aem in it for sure.

 

[diambo4life]

Yes Sir, this was intended for my Mustang, but I changed my mind running the Infinity in it. The dash I got with this car (IQ3) does not work because I don't have its special communication cable so into the Eclipse the AEM dash went! This dash is the logger too. I will set it up some more after I actually start driving it around. I also need to add a few more sensors.

 

[diambo4life]

Finally almost all lighting has been wired up. I did LED bulbs all around, haven't done the actual headlights though. I forgot to do the license plate light bar that I have as well. Anyway, drove the car around the block twice. Runs and sounds good. Now, I just need a tag.

 

[Car Cannibal]

Op, glad to see your issues are getting resolved.

Did you find out what the valvebody pressure issue was, debris etc?

 

[diambo4life]

Per Aaron Gregory,

I did notice 2 things that could be causing the issue you're seeing. The first is the line pressure plug in the channel plate was lose, you may have done it when taking the VB out though. No big deal just needed to tighten that up. But also found the reducing pressure spring broken in half. Reducing pressure isn't being used with the shift control firmware, and the wiring isn't there to the solenoid on the VB anyhow, so it's not needed. I removed the spring and blocked that valve off to prevent it from moving.

 

[diambo4life]

Also, guys, can someone help me out with the turn signal wiring? The front blinkers do not work with the parking lights on. What modification do I need to do? Keep in mind I did all the wiring from scratch and it's powered by a toggle panel. No factory stuff.

I have the parking lights (front and back) on one relay, headlights on a different relay and obviously the left and right signals on different relays. Using a generic LED flasher from Amazon. Works great. I can control the blink rate.

 

[Ludachris]

Per Aaron Gregory,

Pfffffff, why would you listen to that guy? He doesn't know much

 

[diambo4life]

Also, guys, can someone help me out with the turn signal wiring? The front blinkers do not work with the parking lights on. What modification do I need to do? Keep in mind I did all the wiring from scratch and it's powered by a toggle panel. No factory stuff.

I have the parking lights (front and back) on one relay, headlights on a different relay and obviously the left and right signals on different relays. Using a generic LED flasher from Amazon. Works great. I can control the blink rate.

I figured it out. The parking light needs to use the lower wattage circuit and turn, the higher wattage. I switched the wiring and it works perfectly now. Also installed the tag lights. I used an aftermarket LED bar. Kinda bright. Now just to clean up the wiring mess.

 

[diambo4life]

Another trip around the block today....car runs and drives very well, but I need to go over 40mph to really tell how it feels. It might also reveal other issues such as vibrations etc. I lso want to do something about the exhaust. I don't care for the fart can looks or sound.... I am on vacation so I will be doing more work on the car, small stuff here and there. It needs a good cleaning/wiping down inside then I need to install those trims behind the front wheels. Mount my switch panel(s) securely,